The City of Calgary has reached out with an update on its Home Energy Label Program.

We’ve included the full message below from the City’s representative in Planning & Environment.

CREB^®’s Government Relations Team (GRT) is monitoring this topic and advocating to The City of Calgary, based on the following position statement:

We are concerned about the application of Digital Energy Labeling for existing homes, and the potential for the program to stigmatize certain properties (some more than others) and/or create added costs for homeowners (buyers and sellers).

The potential for this program to unfairly affect low-income families is also concerning. We know there are wide-ranging socioeconomic factors across communities. Imposing the City of Calgary Home Energy Label Program would put added pressure on homeowners in a time of rising household cost, further depressing the price of property in lower income neighbourhoods.

Our position is that the City of Calgary Home Energy Label Program should not be imposed as mandatory for existing housing, but rather introduced as an optional measure for homeowners.

Here is the full update from The City of Calgary (received last week):

Good afternoon,

We are reaching out to provide an update on the development of the Home Energy Label Program, as the program processes and timelines have now been developed.

In September 2023, a one-year voluntary pilot and rebate period will launch, in which builders can opt-in through the building permit application process and will be eligible for a rebate. Starting in September 2024, home builders may be required to disclose an EnerGuide Label for all new low-density homes built in Calgary.

A City database and mapping tool designed to share EnerGuide Labels publicly is currently in development, for which the program will be accepting voluntary submissions of existing labels for residential building(s) for inclusion on the database and mapping tool. The program is also developing digital energy scoring using historical EnerGuide data to be applied to the remaining existing residential buildings on the Disclosure Tool alongside the new home EnerGuide Labels.

Further details regarding both this and the pilot period will be released in the coming months.

Additionally, we wanted to pass along that Lightspark is up and running in both Calgary and Edmonton and individual digital home energy assessments are now available for individual properties upon sign up. Lightspark was developed in consultation with The City and contains City data obtained via a data sharing agreement, however it has no official affiliation with this program or The City at this time.

Thank you for your engagement to help shape the design and rollout of this program and we look forward to working with you on this going forward.

Visit The City of Calgary’s Home Energy Label Program website to learn more about this initiative. CREB^®’s GRT will continue to monitor this topic and circle back to share updates as more information is provided.

In the meantime, if CREB^® members are engaging with Ward Councillors and/or other areas of civic leadership on this subject, please do refer to the GRT’s position statement to ensure consistency in our message for the existing home market.